


Indiana Jones and the Land of the Young

by conasatasibh



Category: Archaeology - Fandom, Indiana Jones, Irish Mythology
Genre: Modern Setting, Multi, Museum vibeanna, Post-Crystal skull
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24883837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conasatasibh/pseuds/conasatasibh
Summary: Danu is an archaeologist-in-training, working in the local museum. Until a renegade archaeologist, living on stolen youth, bursts into her life and needs her help to save the day, that is.A tale of adventure, history, folklore, and self-discovery. In that order.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 8





	1. Enter Danu

Danu lay in bed and groaned. Eyes screwed tight against the daylight glaring through her thin curtains, she rued the day she thought working the school tour circuit at the Natural History Museum might be fun. A few weeks into the job she was more than ready to move into calmer times. Days filled with tours for families and local ecology buffs- that’s if the place even kept her on once things quietened down.

She sat up in bed, blinking, and looked around her room. Light filtered in through white curtains, and the plants on her sill, illuminating the piles of clothes and books filling the space. She picked up her phone to check the time: half past seven. She ran through her mental checklist for the morning: clothes, breakfast, walk to work. What would she wear? What was even clean? She looked at the pile of clothes that had somehow reached her chair, let out a long-suffering sigh, and stood up.

Half an hour later, Danu had dressed herself, fixed her hair, packed her bag, and was in the process of inhaling a bowl of cereal. Her house wasn’t far from the museum, which had made her complacent: every day she took five minutes too long getting ready, and had to speedwalk to work.

Danu wore sneakers, and black wide-legged pants, her beige work t-shirt tucked in to the waist. She carried a jacket in her arms for later. Calling goodbye to her housemates, she strode down the green-lined path into town. It was a bright day with a stiff breeze, and finally the fog in her brain cleared enough for her to think.

Foremost in her thoughts was work. Danu had applied to work at the Museum to pay her rent and strengthen her postgrad applications as a kind of gap year, but she hadn’t made a whole lot of progress so far. She had studied Archaeology at the local University, and she’d loved it. Four years of dusty lecture halls later, however, she wasn’t quite sure what she had to show for herself. No matter how knowledgeable and passionate she was in her subject, she was fast realising she had no idea how to make it come across in her applications. How was she going to stand out, against who-knew-how-many other applicants?

She shook her head, as if to clear it- does that ever work?- and walked faster. Twenty minutes of fast-paced, max-volume music later she’d arrived. She took a deep breath, pulled her earbuds out, and eyed up the building’s charming red-brick façade for a moment. Bracing herself, Danu walked into the museum


	2. Wee Squad

The entryway, lined with clear glass windows in faded wooden frames, was filled with the morning light. Sheltered from the wind, Danu felt the warmth of the sun and relaxed into the routine of a day at the museum.

“Morning, Danu,” she heard from behind the reception desk.

Danu smiled at Anna, her boss. A tall woman with slate-grey hair pinned back, she was every bit the dedicated scholar she looked. Back in the day, she’d been one of the rockstars of archaeology: Danu had studied her finds along with those of Howard Carter, Dubois, Indiana Jones, for God’s sake! She’d been everywhere: Peru, Cambodia, Nepal.. But some of her greatest discoveries had been here, in Ireland.

It had been Anna and her team that discovered the monuments, inscribed with Ogham, which had decorated the local University for decades. The acclaim that they brought Anna had set her up for life. In fact, that very acclaim, leveraged to great effect by Anna and the University, had revived the museum- which had previously been falling to ruin, despite its grand collection. For Danu growing up, no fuss was made of Anna. She was a fact of the town, part of its fabric like everyone else, but she was Danu’s hero. The young woman saw her as a kind of mentor, someone to guide her along the path of archaeological mastery. Anna saw her newest employee somewhat differently.

“Could you clean this out later by any chance?”

“Oh yeah, I’m on tours today but I can get it later-”

“That’s fine.”

Giving Danu preoccupied eyes and a half smile, Anna turned her back on her and walked into the office, closing the door behind her. Another day of grant applications and student papers, Danu supposed; either way, that was as well as conversations with Anna usually went. Initially, every interaction between the two women had freaked Danu out- was Anna mad at her? What did the older archaeologist want? But a month had passed, and Danu had concluded that she had to respect the woman’s icy demeanour. Anna came off strong as steel- and for Danu, a meek twenty-something, the effect was every bit as cool as it was terrifying.

Danu dropped her bag off behind the desk, and took a look at the day’s schedule: in the morning a fifth class from an all boy’s school, and in the afternoon- _oh, I'm down for a private tour?_ No name or anything, just a single booking. The museum was so busy that this was extremely unusual, but Danu knew better than to go knock on Anna’s door to ask about it. Not if she didn’t want her head bitten politely off and some extra grunt work. And Danu did not, so she got back to the timetable: according to the notes, the fifth class boys were really into dinosaurs.

For a small museum, it was pretty well equipped: years of University donations and work from Anna and her acolytes had filled the place up with casts of fossils, organic curios, and ancient relics. A particularly enterprising artist in residence had even done up a room to look like an ancient Greek entryway- or his best approximation of one, inspired by Berlin’s Pergamonmuseum. Accurate or no, the effect was impressive, and it didn't clash with the dusty glass cases and dark wood as much as you might think.

Danu, lost in thought, jumped when her coworker leaned over her shoulder to check the roster. “Jesus Christ!”

“Not quite,” said Alan, laughing.

Alan was a sweetheart, a young black man; roughly Danu's own age, he'd been in the year ahead of her at the University. He knew his stuff; working at the museum funded his research at the University, and paid the rent on the place he shared with his long-term girlfriend in town. Danu envied his stability. She moved out of the space, giving him a second to check his duties. “Are you on with me for Scoil Mhuire?”.

“I am yeah. More dinosaurs.”

“Not very original of them, is it?”

“At least they’re consistent. We’ll be regular palaeontologists by the end of June,” Alan quipped.

“You’re right there,” Danu sighed. “Did you see we have a private tour booked later?”

“Hardly,” said Alan, squinting down at Anna’s scrawl on the roster, “We haven’t had one of those in ages. That leaves me St John’s, all girls, how bad.”

“Can you handle it do you think?”

“Sure we’ll see, won’t we?”

The familiar patter came easy to the two of them; with just them, Anna, Jess, another graduate, and John, the custodian, on staff, they were pretty well used to each other. Alan went to the rickety old printer, and set to photocopying the workbooks they gave the schools; Danu made some tea.

“Have you given a private tour before, Danu?”

Danu had not. But she’d given a million school tours with Alan and Jess; as long as she could refrain from using her primary school teacher voice she reckoned she could handle it. “No, is it hard?”

“Ah no, you’ll be grand. I’ve only given a few myself. A lot of these people are old friends of Anna’s, from her days in the field, or potential donors, so just-“

“Ah,” said Danu. “Can do.”

Definitely a no on the primary school teacher voice, then. Shit, did she look okay? She definitely hadn’t dressed for a high-stakes first impression. She put her mug of tea down- World’s Best Archaeology Student, where her parents could have gotten that from she had no idea- and sighed. She supposed she could spruce up in the single ancient bathroom, gender-neutral by necessity, during lunch; surely one of the million bits and bobs weighing down her bag was some form of cosmetic.

Danu and Alan settled outside to greet their first group, jackets held tight against the breeze. They greeted the teachers, exchanging the typical niceties: hi there, how are you, how was the traffic, isn’t it lovely to have such a bright day? The kids formed a loose line, Danu and Alan welcomed them with the usual spiel, and the tour began.

Four hours later, Alan and Danu were waving the kids off. It had been a pretty good tour, all things considered: no children lost, no ancient artefacts damaged, and the group had been sound out. Still, it was a long time to be in entertainment mode. Danu and Alan sat down for a well-deserved cup of tea, and a stolen few Bourbon creams that John had left in the staff cupboard. 

“They were sound enough, weren’t they?” asked Danu.

“Ah yeah,” said Alan, “the perfect warm-up for St John’s later.” 

“Barely even asked about the dinosaurs, though.” 


	3. Mysterious Guest

Before long, lunch break was over, and Danu and Alan were ready for the afternoon tours. Emptying her bag, Danu had unearthed some broken pens, her favourite scrunchie, and a single match, but nothing that would make sure she was fully presentable for her tour. _Ah well,_ she thought, eyeing her reflection in the scratched-up bathroom mirror. _This’ll have to do._

Having drank their tea and tidied up from lunch, Danu and Alan were back in the car park. Despite not really being needed to greet the St John’s bus, Danu felt better standing outside with Alan. It was that or go inside and wait for the recipient of her tour in the dust and the silence of the museum, and God knows she was nervous enough already. They weren’t there long when the bus pulled up. Alan wished her luck, and Danu took her leave.

She went to stand by the front desk, resisting the urge to pace while she waited. The floors were hard, old wood, lit only by the yellow light of fading bulbs. Danu wondered what her tour guest would be like; she wondered if they would be nice. What if they came in and were so impressed by her that they told Anna that Danu was a gem who should never be let go? What if they came in and Danu forgot everything she ever knew? What if they asked questions she couldn’t answer? Oh god, and she already looked messy, it was good enough for kids but this guest would be an adult, with standards, and she really couldn’t afford to lose this job-

Danu winced as the thought broke her out of her reverie. Maybe pacing wasn’t the worst way to pass the time.

She wasn’t pacing long before she heard someone coming down the entryway. She tried to look normal, to arrange her face to say “confident” and not “bricking it". Her guest entered the room, haloed in sunlight from the entryway.

“Hi!” said Danu, trying to smile and squint at the same time. “I’m Danu. Are you here for the tour?”

“I am,” said an American voice, “but it’s not you I’m here to see. This her office?”

The figure gestured towards Anna’s door, and as he moved out of the light, Danu sized him up. Tall, tanned, and solid-looking, her guest had brown hair and a strong jaw. Danu’s nerves took on a new and interesting dimension: this man was really very handsome. In fact, he looked kind of familiar- and what was more, he was much younger than she’d expected from an associate of Anna’s. He looked to be somewhere in his early thirties; not hugely older than Danu herself. More relevant to this moment though: he was striding purposefully towards Anna’s office.

“Oh- sorry- that’s our Director’s Office, and she’s working right now- ”

“Thank you, sweetheart,” he said, condescending as all hell, “But she’ll want to see me.”

And with those words and a gleaming smile, he pushed open Anna’s door and stepped through. Danu, no longer nervous but certainly displeased, followed him in.


	4. Anna, interrupted

Anna’s office was small, and cluttered. Bookshelves lined the walls, dimly illuminated by the single ageing lamp at her desk. As the stranger entered, and Danu behind him, Anna looked up sharply from her books. She closed the uppermost tome with a smack- but as she took in the intruder, her gaze shifted from annoyed to intrigued.

“Excuse me sir,” she said, “This area is usually off-limits to guests, but you bear a striking resemblance to- well, I didn’t think Mutt had had any children -”

Danu had hoped to usher the man out and apologise to her employer, but Anna had barely acknowledged her since walking in. What was going on? Was Anna talking about Mutt Williams- son of the famous Indiana Jones? Had Anna known him before he died? That was some claim to fame.

“He didn’t, did he? No surprise. The boy has a restless soul.” The stranger said.

“Restless is a good word for it. I met him a few times at archaeological society functions. Lovely man, but no wife, no kids, wandered all his life. His funeral was terribly sad.”

“His funeral, dammit,” the intruder said, turning away from Anna, “Was it recently?”

Danu watched Anna’s normally impassive demeanour grow concerned. “A few months ago. You didn’t know? Only, you really look like-”

“Like his father. Mm. Some father he was.”

"You're his very image. I was told that there was no living family to attend the service." 

Danu was totally lost, and beyond intrigued. Was Anna saying what she thought she was saying? How did the intruder know Mutt's father- but not that Mutt had died- and why did he look so familiar?

Anna, meanwhile, was looking through the museum bookings; to check this man’s details, Danu expected. Jess took care of the bookings, usually. The intruder was staring into space, his expression unreadable. All of a sudden, Anna snapped to attention. She had clearly found what she was looking for.

“Danu,” she said, making Danu jump. Anna had known she was there, after all.

“Would you mind putting the kettle on?”

The last thing Danu wanted to do was leave Anna alone with the stranger, but an order was an order.

“Of course,” she said reluctantly, and left the office.


	5. Lukewarm Tea

Danu rushed to put a clean tray together: mugs, milk, sugar, spoons. She sat and stared at the dodgy museum kettle, silently willing it to boil faster. She wondered what was going on in Anna’s office; what that strange man wanted from her boss. The sound of water boiling grew louder and louder as Danu started pacing once more. Why had Anna sent her out of the room? Yes, Danu was new, but she thought she had proven herself at this stage- of course, that was before this disaster of a tour. The kettle clicked off, and she hastily prepared two mugs of tea.

 _On the bright side_ , she thought, hurrying back to Anna’s office, _no one seems to care how I look. So that’s… something…_

Hands full with the tray, Danu was about to nudge the door open with her foot when she heard raised voices. Would she be interrupting? The last thing she wanted was to be sent away again. She peered cautiously through the gap in the door.

Danu couldn’t see Anna, but she could hear the stress in her voice. The stranger was leaning against a wall across from her, the picture of calm. He hadn’t noticed her yet.

“Listen,” he said, smiling, “I need a guide, and I need information. Every source I got says you’re my gal.”

“Even if you are who you say you are, whatever it is you’re looking for, I can’t help you. I can’t help you. Look at me! I haven’t been in the field in years.”

Danu narrowed her eyes. This whole situation was really strange; what kind of job did this man need Anna for? Not that Danu was in high demand herself, but she was pretty sure archaeologists were not usually recruited via ambush.

The stranger rolled his eyes. “I’m not looking for a sidekick, sweetheart, but I can only do so much on my own. I have no problem doing my own research, but this issue, it’s kinda time-sensitive…”

It was then that he spotted Danu, listening at the door. Before she could react, he winked at her, and looked away once more. The moment passed so quickly that Danu didn’t even have time to react. Had he known she was there? Although she had been eavesdropping, she had had enough of being ignored. She set her face, and walked into the office.

Anna looked composed as always, but Danu detected a slight blush high on her cheeks. She was a scholar, not an actor: she was doing her best to hide it, but she was shaken. Danu felt a strange and sudden protectiveness towards her mentor as she placed the tray of tea gently down on the desk, and resumed her place at the back of the room.

“Thank you, Danu. Dr Jones- if that really is you- fine. I will answer your questions.”

All of a sudden, Danu realised who the stranger reminded her of. How had she not seen it sooner? The lecture slides bearing his image had done him no justice, but there was no mistaking it: the invader was the very image of the famous archaeologist, Dr Henry, "Indiana", Jones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to ruairi for beta reading for me! enjoy <3


	6. Doctor to You

Danu stared at the man before her, not even hearing what Anna was saying at this point. The room was dimly lit, surely her eyes deceived her. But the way he talked, like a relic of the American sixties … and Anna had called him Jones… 

“What do you know about Tír na nÓg?”

Anna narrowed her eyes, “The legend?”

“Yes,” the stranger smiled, impatient. “The legend.

” “Well, it’s a common tale here,” said Anna, regaining some of her cool. “Tír na nÓg, the land of youth: a beautiful princess takes an Irish warrior for a husband and spirits him away to live with her in a land out of time. He comes home and 300 years have passed, he becomes an old man and withers away.”

“Yes, yes, I knew that. I did do some research before I crossed the god-damn Atlantic…” 

The man’s smile, insincere to begin with, vanished. He began to pace, clearly agitated. 

Anna furrowed her brow. “I don’t follow.” 

“What do you know about the _torc na farraige_?”

“Na farraige? As in, of the ocean?”

“And the _torc na spéire_?”

Danu began to wonder if she were dreaming. There was no way that her first private tour had been hijacked by an Indiana Jones lookalike spouting primary school Gaeilge at them. She had studied Irish archaeology at the University - she knew plenty about torcs, the wrought metal necklaces worn by Celtic warriors. She’d never heard of a torc na farraige though, nor a torc na spéire. And yet, Anna seemed to know what he was talking about. 

“ _Na toirce_. They’re part of the legend of Tír na nÓg too, aren’t they? Quite the obscure reference there.” 

“Exactly, lady. Before I left, I knew nothing about them.”

“That’s what I don’t understand,” said Anna. “Before you left- left for where?” 

Seeming offended by the very question, the intruder took a sharp step forward, and threw his hands in the air. Danu, alarmed, took a protective step towards Anna.

“Where,” he cried, “do you think?!”

Danu needn’t have moved. Anna rose from behind her desk, eyes flashing, and the man took a step back.

“ _Doctor_ ,” the older woman spat, “I don’t know what to think. It is not every day my office is _invaded_ by a man claiming to be a long-dead archaeologist- never mind one who apparently needs my help- never _mind_ one who tries to intimidate me _in my own office-_ ”

“Okay, calm down, sweetheart-”

Danu snorted involuntarily. 

Anna glared at Danu for a moment, and then at the man. “That's Doctor to you. I said I’d help you, and I meant it. But if you can’t just ask your questions and leave, I think I need to hear the whole story.”

The man stared at Anna for a moment, before collapsing into the chair he’d erstwhile ignored. 

“Dr Jones, how are you here?”

“Okay,” the man said. “Alright, _Doctor_. But I’ve lived out my fair share of strange stories, and I’m warning you: for this one, you might wanna sit down, too.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to ruairi for beta reading! the drawn out suspense is coming to an end, i swear. exposition incoming...


	7. Whipped

The stranger in Anna’s office rubbed his temples.

“A while back, I got a letter to my office at Marshall.”

_Marshall College? In the U.S.?_ Danu wondered. Where Indiana Jones had taught, she supposed… This man was truly committed to the bit. Invisible once more, Danu leaned against a dusty bookshelf and listened. She was less and less inclined to believe she was dreaming; surely this man was mental. Facial similarities aside, there was no way this guy could be Indiana Jones. So why hadn’t Anna sent him away yet?

“Strange enough, it had no stamps and no address: it just landed on my desk. But it was definitely mine; it was addressed to me,” the man frowned. “From Remi Belloq.” 

“Belloq- the archaeologist? Didn’t he die in Crete?”

“No, no… that was his father, René. Remi’s his son. And this story’ll go a hell of a lot faster if you don’t interrupt, by the way.” 

Anna rolled her eyes, but gestured at the man to continue. Danu idly wondered what would happen if she spoke to Anna like that- not that she’d ever dare. It was more than her job was worth, she reckoned. More than her life, probably.

“You have to understand, I’m not in the habit of opening fan mail, but Belloq was a rival of mine… I’m curious, alright, so I open it. Inside there’s a letter, documenting the legend of Tír na nÓg. And how to get there. And I know how this sounds: I’m a historian, I’m a scientist. But I’ve seen some weird shit in my time, so I look into it. “I start with the kid who sent the letter; I ask around. But no one knows the guy- he went to college, did his PhD and vanished. Caused a big stir at the time, and as you can imagine, the feds weren’t all too happy with me, showing up with evidence years later. And it got me thinking- someone, be it Remi in hiding, or some other shmuck writing under his name, really wants me to follow those directions. 

“So, I… well, I did.” 

The man smirked at Anna , daring her to challenge him. Danu merely gaped. She tried to catch Anna’s eye- should she call the Gardaí? Following directions to Tír na nÓg… This man was literally away with the fairies. She’d seen him, she knew he was strong- what if he lost his temper, went after Anna again? 

Slowly, Danu moved her hand to her pocket to check for her phone. She had it on her- she moved to open it- and the man in the chair must have spotted the motion. 

And all hell broke loose.

Before Danu knew what was happening, Anna was standing behind her desk once more. The stranger was standing in front of Danu. Her phone was on the ground, smashed to bits.

And Danu was in agonising pain, wrist pulled taut in front of her by a brown, leather whip. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to ruairi as always for beta reading!! thank him for the smirking


	8. Silver Stranf

“Ah c’mere to me!”

Eyes filling with tears, Danu turned her face towards a raging Anna. The man turned with her, although he looked rather less upset, and rather more embarrassed. Anna glowered at him, and he audibly gulped. Danu was too shocked to respond.

“Doctor Jones!” said Anna, through gritted teeth. “Danu is here because I want her here. Don’t make your _rampant_ paranoia my problem. Release my employee!”

The man grunted, and flicked his wrist to uncoil the whip. Danu pulled away, glaring. The three of them took a moment: Danu in her corner; the man in his seat, legs outstretched; Anna, tense, behind her desk.

The man, Dr Jones, finished his tale.

“The letter said to go to Silver Strand-“

“Galway?” queried Anna, “A lovely spot."

It was the man’s turn to glare at her. 

“Yes,” he said, “Galway.”

Anna smiled and gestured for him to continue. Danu simply looked on; it had been a long day.

“ _Anyway_ , the letter said to go stand there during a full moon, and my ride would come to me. And it did- in the form of a horse, white as sea foam. Came right out of the waves, just like the letter said.”

“An aghiskey?” Anna breathed.

“Whatever it was, it kept me waiting. Wouldn’t stand still, either.” 

At this point in the tale, the stranger struggled not to look smug. “Had to tame it with my whip.”

Danu emerged from her detached state to share a look with Anna- but her eye roll was lost on her mentor, whose attention was wholly focussed on the stranger. It served as a wake-up call to Danu herself. On some level, Anna really believed this man. 

_Great,_ Danu thought. _They’re both insane._

“As it turned out, taming the beast was the easy part. I’ve rode my fair share of wild horses, and at least they’ll throw you onto dry land. This maniac took me across the Atlantic. We rode for a long time. Hours, even days.”

“We passed into some fog, and it cleared- and there we were.”

“There?” said Anna, one eyebrow raised.

“There,” replied the man. “We’d made it. Tír na nÓg.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you to ruairí for beta-reading once more! the chapter in its current form is down to him.


End file.
